Posted on by Karel

Contest #84

contest-84

Hint:  Ewen has really challenged us with this image, if it doesn’t keep you safe from going Ballistic, you’ll never find it.

16 Replies to “Contest #84”

  2. Nekoma, ND US

    It’s here, 48.589419,-98.356739 (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.589419,-98.356739&spn=0.01,0.01&t=m&q=48.589419,-98.356739)

    From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeguard_Program)

    The Missile Site Radar was the center of the Safeguard system, it housed the computers and a phased array radar necessary to track and engage incoming ICBMs. The radar building itself is a pyramid structure several stories tall. Construction was initiated in both Montana and North Dakota, but only the North Dakota site remains. The North Dakota site is still standing and can be seen north of Nekoma, North Dakota at 48°35?21.91?N 98°21?24.26?W? / ?48.5894194°N 98.3567389°W? / 48.5894194; -98.3567389. The remnants of the Montana system were dismantled and buried, it was possibly located at 48°08?25.77?N 111°45?26.16?W? / ?48.1404917°N 111.7572667°W? / 48.1404917; -111.7572667. Structures similar to the North Dakota site can be seen on aerial images of that site. The MSR complex included Spartan and Sprint missile launchers. The MSR is listed in the Historic American Engineering Record, survey ND-9-B.

  5. Ewen’s have been so tough I haven’t even tried, but this one brought me out of WOGE “retirement.” Thank goodness for Gary’s clue and google, it made this one possible to find.

    It’s the Missile Site Radar installation area of the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, an anti-ballistic missile system near Nekoma, ND. Only by adding the word “pyramid” to my google search for “phased array radar” did I find a reference to this site.

  7. Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard complex in Nekoma, North Dakota, US.
    This was too easy, I just googled “pyramid” and “missile”, and found it.

  8. Safeguard anti-ballistic missile defense site, Nekoma ND

    Took one Google image search for “anti-ballistic missile pyramid”

  10. it is the abandoned US anti-ballistic missile system, Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard complex in Nekoma, North Dakota, USA

  12. Just outside Nekoma, North Dakota.

    I grew up in eastern ND. When I was a kid, we drove right past this and my dad pointed it out and told us what it was. That was back when Missile Command was big for the Atari, and the pyramid there is just like in the game.

  13. Safeguard Program anti-ballistic missile complex, just outside Nekoma, South Dakota USA.

  14. I worked on this project for 7 years. I watched grow from a wheat field to the installation of the warheads. The site was fully operational for only a couple of months and at that time our mission was to dismantle all defence capability.
    It was very difficult to destroy all of the very meticulous work that we were required to perform under strict specifications generated by the US Army Corps Of Engineers.

    Are the three RSL Sites and the PAR Site closed also?

    What is in the future for the MSR pyramid?

    Thank you
    Bruce Swanston

  15. The Par site at Cavalier is still operational. A reunion for all who worked at the SRMSC is planned for July 10th, 2010. Go to http://www.srmsc.org for more information about the reunion or for lots of facts about the abandoned site.

  16. I worked at the Mickelsen site as Chief Librarian from the time it opened to the day it closed. The Pyramid was in-
    credible; as big as it was above the prairie, below were even more sections. Thank God for Winnipeg; Nekoma was on the road to nowhere in Cavalier County and the nearest big city was good old Winnie. Too darn cold and Windy for this California boy…couldn’t wait to get out of there to my new assignment in the Panama Canal Zone!

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